


multimeter

by handschuhmaus



Category: Machineries of Empire Series - Yoon Ha Lee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe- Quasi-Generic 20th Century style Autocratic Regime, Gen, Lysenkoism but not biology, inaccurate science
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-18 07:40:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21590890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handschuhmaus/pseuds/handschuhmaus
Summary: obviously the solution to the threat to the hegemony of Kujen's Proper Radiative Science is to deploy his pet military tactician. right?
Relationships: Ajewen Cheris & Garach Jedao Shkan, Vauhan Mikodez & Garach Jedao Shkan
Kudos: 4





	multimeter

"You. Don't. Want me." Jedao groused, brushing long and greasy stands of hair off his nose as he sat in the darkness.

Mikodez did not know how this cell (and for temporary confinement anyway) could be so dingy. And dark, but that was probably the 16:30 twilight. Which he only knew because Istradez had said last weekend, and he'd had no idea it was getting on five.

"Come off it," he coaxed. He much wished they were having this conversation in his (and Istradez') apartment, because the surroundings would be much nicer and he could be baking the bread he had meant to for a week. Or knitting. And they could still have the conversation! And maybe that sort of set of minor pleasantries would make Jedao a little less... insistant on the death wish.

Jedao only glared at him, and there was an uncomfortably determined glint in his eyes. 

"One of the Kel wants you," Mikodez announced cheerfully, mostly because it would help whether it irritated him or actually worked.

"Then why did they send you to get me?" The note of hopeless despair could hardly be a greater contrast.

And that was a less welcome answer. "Kujen is _busy_. And you used to be--" 

Jedao shook his head and sighed. "Bring in the crashhawk."

"She's not a crashhawk and she's not cleared for political holding cells. You'll have to come out if you want to meet Cheris."

"And the terms?" he demanded wearily, staring at Mikodez' shoes, and perhaps the socks with the cats on them, a gift from Zehun when they went abroad. In any case, they were incongruous these days in this land.

"The usual ones," Mikodez allowed, but reluctantly, and looked at his pricey but crap watch. If they were holding to schedule, they'd be instructing Kel Cheris in use of the chemical chrysalis, an ...agent the head of the SHUOS agency regarded with distaste. But Kujen, their immortal genius, demanded it be used for prisoners in the Dark Cradle, the remote and high security political prison, even though they were also kept on a short radio leash when out and about. He hoped Cheris wouldn't ask too many questions about why Jedao was here instead of somewhere actually designated for his war crimes. Well, war crimes according to global society. The SHUOS didn't always play by the rules, and the Vidona typically operated on a different system altogether. 

"What is it about this time?" the once-general asked, in a parody of politeness.

"Rebels locked us out of Petra City." Well. If by "us" you meant the authorized personnel. SHUOS couldn't quite be deterred by that.

"Petra is--" Jedao bit off his words, and jerked his head briefly to the side, gesturing at an omni--but-not-actually present Kujen. "Why are the Kel policing it?"

"Armed rebels demand a proper response. But--there was actually a sort of contest. And you, you were the winning suggestion."

He frowned. "There must not have been many good candidates, then."

"Oh...I don't know about that. But come on, if you're coming."

* * *

They--it's a Nirai, but he preferred not to accord them the title in this instance--fastened a device for execution around Jedao's thin chest, wires woven into ribbon that didn't cover colourful paper insulation, grotesquely cheerful in the context. Someone would call it a dead man's handle setup, except that the only dead man would be Jedao and--worse, Kujen has barbarously fixed it so he has too much control and it wouldn't kill his toy general--its purpose was actually that his handler might get out alive. Fixed on the right side of his chest, mirroring the position of his heart, was the radio transceiver leash, with a range of only five meters. If the signal from the transceiver around Cheris's shoulder, concealed under her arm by the edge of her uniform undershirt, wasn't received and a reply transmitted, the thing would shock him into unconsciousness.

And if she didn't get the reply, then a burn, a sting... She'll be alerted that something is wrong.

"They said you're a madman," Cheris said hoarsely, instead of a more usual greeting. 

"Perhaps I am," Jedao assented. 

"They have the Crying Tailor's Reactor." She pronounced, and must have known of its significance, but perhaps not exactly what it meant.

Jedao frowned faintly. There were heretical theories about what could go wrong with the thing Kujen had pieced together (evidently it existed beyond their borders). But if heretics tampered with it...

"Alright, I'll fight them." He noticed she has a star, but it's excessively shiny and the finish looks cheap, the decoration of a very temporary promotion.

* * *

Cheris didn't learn a lot about Jedao, on the way to the province. And they didn't get an opening move, exactly, from Petra City. But a tattered English page, brown with age and torn, blew around her feet, and Jedao, in his garb as her servant, told her how they would open play: "Tell then Garach Jedao is here."

(She wondered if it was a reasonable move. But she did it.)

**Author's Note:**

> There's some chance this will be continued, but it's uncertain when that might be.


End file.
